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Old April 3, 2017   #15
Csross
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Bel Air, MD
Posts: 28
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Wow, thanks for all the input! Sorry, "stunting" was the wrong, inexact word. As I said, I've previously only started tomatoes in my warm dining room, where they never experience any temps below ~64F, so I was concerned about moving them to the garage. Then I saw Amideutch's thread on cold treatment here, and started reading about the benefits of exposing them to colder temperatures while they're still young. "Basically this cold treatment is used to give healthier, more stocky seedlings that will give increased yields and earlier harvests." That's the line that caught my eye. In that thread, that's defined as 52-56F overnight for 2-3 weeks, and then warmer.

I'm not trying to slow their growth, they just got their first true leaves and I hope to plant out in a month or less, depending on weather. I wanted to make sure that some cold (i.e. 48-50F) wouldn't hurt them at this stage, and from your responses it sounds like they'll be fine. Based on the forecast, I'm expecting their overnight temps will be in the mid to low 50s for this week.

Bower, thanks for the advice on switching the diurnal cycle. I'll probably keep it like this for a bit longer, and then as the overnight lows warm up, I'll switch it back to normal.

I'm glad to hear that there are many different techniques for successfully starting plants! Thanks everyone.
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